The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Thirteenth Lecture

[ 1 ] I have often pointed out that a primordial wisdom once present among humankind can be characterized precisely by the fact that, through this primordial wisdom, people were aware that they were citizens of the universe, not merely of the Earth. Cast a spiritual glance at what exists today in the consciousness of thinking humanity and at what exists in the consciousness of those who, based on certain scientific premises, reflect on humanity’s place in the world. Both are, in fact, the same. For just as the vast majority of people in Earth’s primeval times thought and felt what was taught in the Mysteries—the Mysteries that were the centers of the surrounding culture and civilization—so today, people in wide circles absorb what is taught and researched in the profane Mysteries of the present, at universities and institutions of higher learning. Just as the mysteries in ancient times related to what the broad masses of the population believed, so do the colleges and universities relate to today’s general public. What the ancient teachers in the mysteries thought about the relationship of human beings to the sun, about the relationship of human beings to the zodiac—that, of course, was believed by the vast majority. Whatever university professors say—or fail to say—today about humanity’s relationship to the sun and to the moon, that is what the vast majority of people believe. The notion that all wisdom concerning humanity is exhausted by the assertion that humans have physically evolved gradually from animal ancestors is a one-sided, a very, very one-sided truth; it does not encompass the actual facts. But people of modern times relate to their “initiates”—the university professors—just as the people of antiquity related to their initiates in the mysteries. Psychologically, there is actually no particular difference between these two relationships. Except that the people of antiquity knew: Everything that is within the human being is connected not only to what develops on Earth, but also to what the eye can perceive as far as the starry heavens. The processes taking place within the human being—including the physical ones—are connected to the activities of the Sun and to the activities of the other planets belonging to the solar system.

[ 2 ] If you read my *Outline of Esoteric Science*, you will see that the anthroposophically oriented spiritual science—which this *Esoteric Science* aims to serve—seeks to restore in people the awareness that human beings are not only connected to the Earth, but also to extraterrestrial worlds. It is pointed out there that our Earth itself is merely a temporary embodiment of that which previously existed in its essence as the Moon, the Sun, and Saturn, and it is pointed out that human beings continue to evolve and that these further forms of human development will be connected with future forms of development of the Earth itself—with Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan. Thus, that which belongs to the human being is lifted out of the merely earthly realm. The human gaze is once again directed from the Earth toward the cosmos. This is one of the facts of which humanity must once again become aware if it is not to degenerate on Earth: that the human being belongs to the cosmos, that the human being is connected, in its inner being, to extraterrestrial spheres.

[ 3 ] Why is it necessary to know this? It must be known because self-knowledge is necessary—not the kind of self-knowledge that consists in brooding over one’s own dear self, but the recognition of humanity as a universal being. This self-knowledge must spread; it must become universal and ever more universal. For unless human beings grasp themselves, they will have no foothold—above all, no spiritual foothold—in the future of human development. But the point cannot be merely to dwell a little on the subordinate, chaotic human being; rather, it must be a matter of concretely surveying the structure of this inner human being, just as one does not characterize external nature merely by saying: Nature, nature, nature! — but by pointing out: There are plants, there are animals — and, in turn, distinguishing the individual genera and species within the individual plants. In the same way, within the human soul, we must distinguish above all the individual metamorphoses of this soul life. Now let us characterize these individual metamorphoses of the soul life—or rather, one aspect of them. First, we have that metamorphosis of our soul life which is most closely connected to our physicality, which is most dependent on our physicality. It is that faculty of the soul which we designate by the term “memory” or “the power of recollection.” Through memory, we are able to relive the experiences of our individual life. Through memory, we are able to trace a thread from a specific moment—which may lie two, three, four years, or even longer after birth—to the events of the present moment; and a person would be inwardly ill if this thread were to break. I have, after all, explained this many times before. If we were to look back on a part of our life’s course in such a way that the memory of certain events were lost to us, the coherence of our experiences would be absent. And that would mean that we would be unwell in our sense of self. But on the other hand, a person will at least be able to recognize how closely memory is connected to their physical constitution. One need only recall the fact—which I have also mentioned frequently and which is actually quite well known—that when we suffer from insomnia or when external events prevent us from sleeping properly, our memory suffers as a result. This alone, along with many other things that can occur in cases of illness, proves how memory depends on physical constitution.

[ 4 ] What we call our intelligence is less dependent on this physical constitution—that is, more independent of it. Yet this intelligence is still very strongly dependent on the physical constitution. Memory, after all, relates essentially only to the individual. We share intelligence with other people, at least to a high degree. Certainly, one person is more intelligent, another less so; in their own view, each person is usually the most intelligent; but in general, one can still say: The fact remains that one person is more intelligent and another less so. Yet a certain uniformity pervades human intelligence. While each person has their own content of memory, into which no one else can look—and thus this content of memory is highly individual—the content of intelligence is something more commonly shared by humanity. It is, after all, less bound to a person’s physical constitution. A person’s physical constitution actually functions merely as a mirror to what unfolds as intellectual processes. Anyone who claims that the processes in the human nervous system, in the brain, give rise to thoughts is, in truth, saying nothing more intelligent than someone who, standing before a mirror and seeing Miss Scholl, Miss Laval, and Dr. Grosheintz reflected in it, were to say: “The mirror has produced Miss Scholl, Miss Laval, and Dr. Grosheintz.” — Just as the mirror relates to the images of the three people mentioned, and just as those three people also exist outside the mirror and actually have nothing to do with it other than allowing themselves to be reflected by the mirror, so intelligence has to do with the brain only insofar as it is reflected to our consciousness through the brain; but the processes of the intelligent being itself lie outside the brain. We would know nothing of the processes of the senses if we had no brain. The processes of intelligence would not be reflected in our brain. But these intelligent processes themselves constitute an essence outside the brain, which is merely reflected by the brain.

[ 5 ] And then we come to the third human faculty, which is—at least to a large extent—the most independent of our physical constitution. Yet people are the least likely to believe this about it, for they consider it to be the most dependent on our physical constitution. This is sensory activity. Let’s take the eye. The eye itself, as such, has nothing to do with the processes that constitute vision. The processes of vision are far less bound to the instrument of the eye than the intellectual processes are to the instrument of the brain. What the eye has to do with seeing is, in fact, something entirely different. The processes that occur in our consciousness as the content of vision—these processes have nothing to do with the eye. What takes place in the eye merely ensures that we are present with our consciousness, with our “I,” during the processes of vision. Please take careful note of this fundamental, yet not easily grasped, distinction.

[ 6 ] Take, for example, a person who has lost the use of both eyes due to some illness. As a result, he has not lost the act of seeing as such, but he has lost the perception of what the act of seeing is through his “I.” His “I” knows nothing of it. The “I” knows nothing of what the act of seeing is. The “I” is simply cut off from the act of seeing. What happens there can be compared, for example, to the following:

[ 7 ] Suppose you have three telegraph stations, A, B, and C; you have stationed a telegraph operator at each station. If the operator at A now sends a telegram to € , the operator at € can read what is being transmitted from A to C. There is no question of the Morse apparatus at A producing the content of the telegram. It is merely the intermediary. Similarly, the Morse telegraph at C cannot read the message, but it transmits it. However, if apparatus B is connected to the A-C line, then the operator at B can sit in on the transmission and listen in or read along; he need only let the tape run to read along with it. B is then connected to the flow of current that transmits the telegraph content. But the content traveling from A to C has absolutely nothing to do with the processes taking place in the Morse telegraph at B. They are merely perceived because the device is connected.

[ 8 ] Of course, if the device is not turned on, one cannot perceive the processes. It is the same with the human eye. The processes that take place within the eye have, in their inner reality, absolutely nothing to do with seeing. The eye is merely engaged in these processes. And because the eye is engaged in these processes, the “I” can observe the processes of seeing. But the eye is not at all what actually conveys or brings about the content of the visual processes, or does anything with it in any way. It is merely the receiving apparatus for the “I.” One could say, paradoxically—if one were not running the risk that today’s humanity, endowed with somewhat larger brains, might find it paradoxical—that our sensory organ, the eye, has nothing at all to do with seeing, but has everything to do with the “I” knowing something about seeing. — Sensory organs as we have them today—that is, the higher sensory organs—are not there for the purpose of seeing, but rather so that the “I” can be aware of the act of seeing. I would even like to write this sentence on the board: Higher sensory organs are not there to mediate sensory processes, but rather so that an “I” is aware of those sensory processes.

[ 9 ] Here we have the three so-called higher soul activities: memory, intelligence, and sensory perception—sensory activity. The “I” is involved in them; it is most strongly connected to its physical body through memory, somewhat less so through intelligence, and least of all through sensory activity.

[ 10 ] What I have just described to you stems from the following. Memory was not always the same in human beings as it is today. It has evolved. And what lay at the foundation of the development of memory was a primary human activity during the last earthly incarnation preceding our present one—the ancient Moon era. At that time, memory was a kind of unconscious, dreamlike imagination. “Memory was dreamlike imagination. Because our physical organization on Earth has become what it is today, the living, dreamlike imagination—which completely filled the human soul during the ancient Moon era—has become what is now our memory.

[ 11 ] During the Age of the Ancient Sun, when we did not yet possess a physical body as we do now—when we were still the beings I described in my *Secret Science*—our intelligence was a dormant inspiration. This dormant inspiration then developed further and is now our intelligence. Sensory activity, however, was a very dull intuition during the ancient Saturn era. Again, you can find a more detailed description in my *Secret Science*. And this dull intuition has evolved into our present-day sensory activity.

	Moon	Solar time	Saturn
Sensory activity			Dull Intuition
Intelligence		Dormant Inspiration
Memory	Dreamlike Imagination

[ 12 ] Now one might ask: Why is it so difficult for people to grasp such extraordinarily important truths? — And when someone conveys them, why do people resist them so strongly? — Yes, you see, there are reasons for this in the very nature of things. We had a vague intuition during the ancient Saturn era. This gradually developed further and further and became our sensory activity. But in fact, today we can demonstrate that only one sensory activity has developed relatively most completely from the predisposition of the ancient Saturn sensory activity, and that is hearing. Hearing had its most distinct predisposition in the ancient Saturn sphere. Sight arose somewhat later—you can also read about these things in my *Secret Science*—primarily during the Sun era. But from this you can already see that, while the first predisposition was laid down during the ancient Saturn era in the form of a vague intuition, new sensory predispositions were continually added later on. On the Sun, new sensory faculties were added—ones that are not yet as developed today as those originating from Saturn; on the Moon, yet more new sensory faculties were added; and on Earth itself, still more. On Earth, the sense of touch was added—actually, the most imperfect of the senses. If we were to perceive the sense of touch in its pure form, we would still describe it today as a dull intuition within physicality—a low, dull intuition.

[ 13 ] The same is true of the sense of smell. Something extraordinarily peculiar occurs here. To those of you who might be interested in such things, I would recommend: Take a look at books on psychology or physiology—but especially psychology, the science of the soul, as it is written today; there, the activity of the senses is discussed everywhere. What is written there about sensory activity—to the uninitiated, it applies only to the sense of touch. You may recall what I said in my *Theosophy* about the relationship of the higher senses to the sense of touch—something Goethe had already observed. Our learned gentlemen wish to describe the senses, but they describe only that aspect of the senses which arose directly on Earth, which received its first imprint on Earth. This applies, for example, to sight just as—here one can almost say literally—“a fist to the eye” when you strike it. For what is described in these works of psychology is not sight itself, but rather what would occur if you were to punch yourself in the eye with your fist; hence also the charming theory that has arisen concerning the so-called specific sensory energies, which, in the case of the eye, do not stem from seeing, but from the fact that when one strikes the eye, one sees all sorts of sparks. These learned gentlemen are really describing something that has the effect of a fist to the eye—quite literally. And through this, they seek to understand seeing.

[ 14 ] One can only understand sensory activity if one considers it in connection with what no longer exists at all: Saturn evolution, Sun evolution, Moon evolution. One can only understand human intelligence by considering it in connection with what no longer exists at all: the development of the Sun and the Moon. One can only understand memory by considering it in connection with what also no longer exists: the ancient lunar development. And from the Earth’s perspective, one can only understand the acquisition of sensory activity, intelligence, and memory by the “I,” for it was only during the Earth period that the “I” became incorporated into the human being. And the organs that were formed in the human being during the Earth period are not at all intended to convey his higher soul faculties, but rather to convey that these higher soul faculties reveal themselves in an “I.” We have eyes for an “I,” ears for an “I,” a nose for an “I”—not a nose for smelling, which would be most correct, since it was formed during the Earth period; but it is also no longer entirely correct, since it will change during the Earth period. But we do not have eyes for seeing, ears for hearing; we have ears so that an “I” can know something of what is happening in the ear—just as a Morse telegraph is turned on here so that someone, not the Morse telegraph itself, can know something of what is being communicated between A and C. By still saying today that we have eyes for seeing and ears for hearing—and by cloaking everything in this kind of language—we are speaking of something that has no reality whatsoever. We speak constantly in illusions; we speak in untruths. We do not know what purpose our entire physical constitution actually serves. We do not have it to mediate the higher activities of the soul, but rather so that the “I” may learn something from these higher activities of the soul. Our entire physical being is a reflection of the “I.” And we are constituted as we are because we are an “I.” In our outward form, we are meant to become aware of the outward image of the “I.” For we received our body—as we now bear it—only through the Earth. And it is impossible to derive from the events of the Earth that which the Earth did not give us, or to seek the cause of it in the events of the Earth.

[ 15 ] Just as we have been able to point out that the ancient lunar evolution is the determining factor for our memory activity—because that is where the predispositions were formed—and just as we have been able to point out that the ancient solar evolution is the determining factor for our intelligence—because that is where the first predispositions were formed—and so on up to the Saturn activity, we must also point out that these higher soul faculties are connected today with the beings of the higher hierarchies, specifically in such a way that our memory is connected with the hierarchy of the Angeloi, our intelligence with the Archangeloi, and our sensory activity with the Archai.

	Moon	Solar Time	Saturn
Sensory Activity			Subtle Intuition Archai
Intelligence		Dormant Intuition Archangeloi
Memory	Dreamlike Imagination Angeloi

[ 16 ] And this brings me to an important chapter in spiritual insight. Suppose you are reflecting, in the context of human self-knowledge, on memory, on the capacity to remember. You say: I direct my inner organ, my soul organ, toward the capacity to remember. — But when you look at what you are focusing on—if you look at it with full consciousness—you must look at it in such a way that you say to yourself: “Within this entire activity, within this process of remembering, the Angelos weaves and lives.” — Now, at this very moment, try to remember something you experienced yesterday—any event. There you have allowed an inner process of the soul to unfold. In what is unfolding there, and as a thought from yesterday arises within you, as a yesterday’s experience reveals itself anew to you in memory—an angel is at work within that. And if you think intelligently—admittedly, it must be intelligent—that is, involving inner activity, not mere brooding, not what most people call intelligent thinking, which is really just the simmering of memories; people let memories simmer from within their bodies. Thinking only begins when one actively grasps thoughts inwardly—so when one develops inner activity, an archangel is present. And if you listen around and look around, then you must say: In my ears, in my eyes, there are the thrones of the Archai, the spirits of the ages. — If you ask yourself: Where are the spirits of the ages, the Archai, who rule the successive world ages of the Earth? — then you should not seek them in completely unknown regions; you should seek them in the sensory organs of human beings. That is where they sit. An age already decadent in terms of its spiritual faculties sought the gods up there above the blue—which does not even exist—and likewise the spirits of the ages above the blue—which does not even exist. When a person asks, “Where, then, are the spirits of the ages?”—they sit in his eyes, in his ears; that is where they have their thrones.

[ 17 ] This sheds light from a different angle on what I once explained to you when I pointed out that within human beings themselves lie the centers from which the events of nature are governed. If you have the formulas recited to you in certain secret societies and interpret them correctly, you will find that these formulas, handed down from very ancient times, point to truths such as those I have now expounded before you; that human beings are temples for the gods who stand above them—that is, for the beings of the higher hierarchies. They are so in the most literal sense. For if one asks: Where do the Angeloi, Archangeloi, and Archai dwell? — then I must say: In the organs of human memory, human intelligence, and human sensory activity. — Man is, to speak in a true sense, truly filled with spirit—that is, filled with spirits. The Church did not want people to become aware of this, which is why, in 869 at the Eighth Ecumenical Council, it forbade knowing or believing anything regarding the spiritual realm; it established the dogma that human beings consist only of body and soul. — Human beings are very, very complex beings, and if one were to stand, say, on a distant star and observe the events on Earth from there—from a different vantage point—the mineral kingdom would immediately vanish; it would appear outwardly only as a glow of light. Little of the plant kingdom would be perceived, nor much of the animal kingdom. As for human beings, individual people would not be perceived from the outside; rather, the thrones in outer space would be there, occupied by angels, archangels, and Archai. And such a being, possessing the necessary capacity for perception from a distant star, would say: The Earth is a body in outer space that serves as the dwelling place of the Archai, archangels, and angels. — In the language of the gods, this would be expressed as: The Earth is the dwelling place of the spirits of time, archangels, and angels. In the everyday language of humans, this means: Human beings possess sensory organs, tools of intelligence, and a constitution of memory. But humanity is called upon to truly come to know the human being and to seek out that human being’s real relationship to the spiritual world.

[ 18 ] The pendulum swing of civilization has been different up to now. People have examined the chemical substances that make up food in order to understand what humans consume. Physicality equates to the matter of food, and so on—these relationships have been explored. It has been said: What is out there in the various plants or in the various animals enters into human beings; sometimes it is active out there in the cabbage, sometimes in the ox, and sometimes it is active inside the human being, constituting him. — So one sees an ox out there; one looks at it. Then one sees a human being and knows that this person has eaten the steak made from that ox, and one traces what part the steak—which was still active in the ox just a few days ago—plays in the human being’s inner processes; therein lies the relationship of the physical to the natural external world. There one traces how the steak, which was once in the ox’s loins, is subsequently active within the human being.

[ 19 ] This has been pursued to excess, and from it a worldview has been concocted that has caused the pendulum of human worldview to swing to one side. Now the pendulum must swing to the other side. Now one must know that the human soul is just as closely connected to the spiritual world, to spiritual substances. And what these spiritual substances are—archangels, archai, angels—they are within the human being, just as the ox is within the human being when the person eats a steak, right there in their body. Modern science acknowledges the former but still scoffs at the latter. But for the further development of humanity, it is necessary for people to know just as well what relationship they have to angels as they know today what relationship they have to an ox or to cabbage—I mean physical cabbage!

[ 20 ] We are at a turning point in history where it is indeed necessary for human development to turn toward what flows from the spirit into the soul, after we have for long enough directed our attention one-sidedly toward what flows from the physical world into the physical aspect of the human being. For the person who is beginning to develop today, it is not enough to have certain religious truths conveyed to them dogmatically and abstractly through creeds. People today have been engaged in reflecting on the relationship between their earthly body and the spiritual realm. This earthly body initially has a relationship only with the “I.” Tomorrow we will learn about other relationships. But that which manifests in the earthly body—the constitution for the capacity for memory—is related to the hierarchy of the Archangels. That which is embedded in this earthly body as the constitution for intelligence has a relationship to the world of the Archangels. That which reveals itself to us through our higher senses—namely, that which emerges in our higher art—has a relationship to the world of the Archai, the spirits of time. As human beings, we must become capable not merely of talking in general terms about the existence of a spiritual world, but we must become capable of sensing the concrete connections between human beings and this spiritual world. We must become capable of sensing how that which resonates within us as hearing is a series of facts permeating our world, within which the Archai are at work. We must become capable of grasping this: While we think, we dwell in a world that is woven through and permeated by Archangeloi; while we remember, we dwell in a world that is woven through and permeated by Angeloi; and when we become conscious of our “I”—for which we always use our body most fully—then the body is a revelation of our “I.” — Only then are we in the world where the human being weaves and acts. Even in the Greek Mysteries, it was said: When one approaches the Guardian of the Threshold, one learns to recognize what is within the human being in a higher way. — On this side of the threshold, one becomes acquainted only with thoughts that remind one of past experiences. Beyond the threshold, the beings of the world of the angels surround us. On this side of the threshold, one learns to recognize the intelligent being; beyond the threshold, one perceives how the archangels surround us. On this side of the threshold, one perceives the external sensory world; beyond the threshold, one knows how the spirits of the times flow in and out through our eyes and ears.

[ 21 ] We must ensure that this awareness is awakened in human beings—that they are connected to the spiritual world simply by virtue of their constitution. But this must be specifically awakened for each individual organ. Human beings must learn to feel that they are in a spiritual world, whereas the worldview that has reached its peak today allows them to feel only that they live in a physical world. This feeling of living in a physical world would have completely dominated human beings had the event at Golgotha not taken place. The fact that human beings can develop back toward an awareness of their spiritual connection is due to the Mystery of Golgotha. But one must seek what one owes to the Mystery of Golgotha out of a free, inner impulse. Christianity presupposes freedom.

[ 22 ] What can be known there—namely, the relationship between human beings and the spiritual world—can indeed take on practical significance within the human being. And what we wish to take as the foundation of our educational approach at the Stuttgart Waldorf School—that is, the awareness that a human being is more than just a synthesis of external natural processes—has emerged from this very awareness. Education and instruction should be conducted in such a way that one is aware that within oneself there is not only the baby who grows physically and who, once weaned, gradually begins to eat cabbage and beef, but also the soul being in which the beings of the higher spiritual realms gradually take part. And as we teach through education, we introduce the activity of the beings of the higher hierarchies into the developing child. Human beings should not merely learn to kneel at the altar and pray for their own selfishness; they should learn to make a form of worship out of everything they do in the world. Today, it is an urgent task to convey to people that everything they do in the world must be a form of worship. But this is opposed by those who do not want people to participate in these higher tasks of humanity.

[ 23 ] While I was in St. Gallen yesterday, attempting to develop—in relation to the field of education—the activity and fruitfulness of what can flow from spiritual insight, I was told that we have now reached the point where the clerical newspapers in St. Gallen have not only refused to publish a text excerpt but have also refused to run an advertisement for this lecture, in other words, they have refused to publish an advertisement for this lecture. This opposition is becoming increasingly well-organized. They understand what organization means on that side. I only want to draw your attention to the fact that resistance to the truth taking root in the world will become ever more pronounced. I intend to inform you of these matters little by little. I also do not want you to remain unaware of this small fact, so that you may sense that, little by little, standing up for the truth of Christ will no longer be a task for sleeping souls, but will increasingly become a task for waking souls. We also need organizations to be able to counter the organization on the other side. We will talk more about this tomorrow.